354 Annals of the South African Museum. 



Arm-spines 2 or 3, close together near middle or on lower half 

 of side arm-plate; upper arm-plates pentagonal, in contact, be- 

 coming rhombic and finally triangular and distally well separated 



Ophiura costata. 



Arm spines 3, the uppermost near top of side arm-plate, widely 

 separated from the other two; upper arm-plates tetragonal, 

 broadly in contact, distally elongated and finally somewhat sep- 

 arated ..... Ophiura irrorata. 

 Arm-spines 3, moderately long, the uppermost longest and equalling 

 or exceeding an arm-segment. 



Arm-spines wide and flat; radial shields small; upper arm- 

 plates, tetragonal, broadly in contact . Ophiura flagellata. 

 Arm-spines acicular; radial shields large; upper arm-plates 

 (except basal) oval, becoming elongated, little or not at all in 

 contact ..... Ophiura trimeni. 



Radial shields pushed back from margin of disk and separated from 

 basal upper arm-plates by two closely united, small, swollen plates, which 

 lie between the considerably elevated upper ends of the genital plates; 

 a secondary arm-comb of minute papillae lies on the outer side of each 

 of these swollen plates . . . Dictenophiura anoidea. 



Tentacle-scales on second oral and basal arm-pores few, usually 1 or 2 but 

 in Ophioplocus sometimes 4 or 5. 



Upper arm-plates single and unbroken. 



Upper arm-plates large and broadly in contact. 



Oral shields distinctly longer than wide; primary plates of disk 

 and two similarly large plates in each interradius conspicuous, 

 each surrounded by a distinct belt of smaller scales 



Ophiocten amitinum. 



Oral shields distinctly wider than long; disk plates thin, and 

 rather indistinct, tho the primary plates are often quite evident 



Ophiocten pacificum. 

 Upper arm-plates very small and widely separated 



Ophiomusium lymani. 



Upper arm-plates broken into half a dozen or more pieces, more or less 

 symmetrically arranged . . . Ophioplocus imbricatus. 



ASTROPHIURA CAVELLAE. 



Koehler, 1915. Bull. Inst. Ocean., no. 311, p. 1, figs. 1-6. 



It was with great pleasure that I found in the PIETER FAURE 

 collection, two specimens of Astrophiura in very fine condition. The 

 first example of this remarkable genus was collected on the shores 

 of Madagascar and was described by Sladen in 1879, as A. permira. 

 (This date has been published by Koehler as 1870 and by Matsu- 

 moto as 1878; the former is probably a typographical error while 

 the latter is due to a preliminary notice of Sladen's not sufficient 

 to establish the species). In 1898, the VALDIVIA collected a species 



